It only figures that Dereck Bigford’s 30-year tenure as head coach of the Cicero-North Syracuse wrestling team will end at the biggest meet of the winter, with one of his Northstars competing on the mat.
Nathan Osborne’s victory in the 113-pound weight class during Saturday’s Section III Division I tournament at SRC Arena means that Osborne will get to go to Albany’s Times Union Center on Feb. 24-25 for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
Osborne was not the top seed going into the sectional tournament. That belonged to Baldwinsville’s Jacob Cavallo, who beat Osborne 5-1 in the Feb. 4 sectional Class AA final.
Badly wanting a rematch a week later, Osborne, working from the no. 3 seed, beat Cavallo’s teammate, Tyler Schardt, 13-3 in the quarterfinals. Then he met Liverpool wrestler Steve Pascarella, and that turned into a classic, decided at the wire when Osborne pulled it out, 10-8.
Cavallo did his part with a pair of pins to set up the rematch with Osborne, but in the finals the C-NS sophomore took charge from the outset with a first-period takedown. For the remaining part f the six-minute bout, Cavallo tried, in vain, to answer, but Osborne added to his total and claimed a 6-0 decision to improve his season mark to 22-9.
As Osborne celebrated a sectional title, C-NS, as a whole, could take pride in the fact that it beat its neighbors from Liverpool in the standings, earning 68 points for sixth place as the Warriors were eighth with 59 points. Neither was close to Fulton’s winning total of 241 points.
Christian Anoceto dropped his 220-pound quarterfinal to Central Square’s Jordan Pone, but then won three straight bouts. Anoceto pinned Parker Hogan (Auburn) and edged Jerome Davis (Institute of Technology Central) 3-1 to reach the consolation bracket final, where he edge Fulton’s Sam Jones 1-0 for a third-place finish.
Dario Ciciarelli finished sixth at 99 pounds, beating West Genesee’s Nate Wade 10-1 to reach the semifinals, but then running into Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA’s Myles Griffin, who prevailed 13-1 on the way to the sectional title. Eventually, Ciciarelli lost a rematch to Wade 3-0 in the fifth-place bout.
Nick Gazzillo, stopped in the 152-pound quarterfinal by Rome Free Academy’s Steven Hildenbrandt, pinned Fayetteville-Manlius’ James Fero in the third period to secure a sixth-place podium finish. Jacob Hall, in the 138-pound quarterfinal, lost to Fulton’s Adam DeMauro in a first-period pin.
Jack McDonald (182 pounds) took a quarterfinal defeat to the eventual champion, Central Square’s Max Emond, right before Jeremiah Butler (195 pounds) got beat in the quarterfinals by B’ville’s Thor Sutphen with an early pin.
Liverpool did not get a wrestler to any of the 15 title bouts. Pascarella, denied by Osborne, did recover to pin Donovan Marriott (East Syracuse Minoa) before a consolation bracket final where he lost to Whitesboro’s Jeff Robinson, so Pascarella settled for fourth place.
Will Ronan did make it to a third-place finish at 170 pounds, first by beating teammate Mo Zahran 12-0 before a quarterfinal loss to J-D/CBA’s Zach Langdon. Then Ronan pinned Domonic Konop (Watertown) in 58 seconds, edged Jeremy Henning (Indian River) 4-2 and capped off his consolation bracket title with a tough 7-5 win over F-M’s Bryce Doane in the third-place match.
Jerry Nash was fifth at 132 pounds. Stopped in the quarterfinals in a 5-4 defeat to J-D/CBA’s Garrett Bauer, Nash routed Tony Campbell (Carthage) 11-1 in the consolation bracket and, after another defeat, rebounded to pin Baldwinsville’s Tyler Patrick in 1:56 to get that fifth-place honor.
Dylan Wallace lost in the 138-pound quarterfinal to Dan Tauroney (New Hartford) 4-3, but then won twice in the consolation bracket, including a 3-1 overtime victory over DeMauro, but fell again to Tauroney due to disqualification and settled for fourth place.
At 120 pounds, the Warriors’ Charlie Tran lost his quarterfinal to Fulton’s Andru Walts, but topped F-M’s Zach Colon 8-6 to assure a placement, even if it turned out to be sixth place following a 2-0 defeat to Carthage’s RileyGreen.
Jeremy Ianno (106 pounds) lost in the first round to Indian River’s Lucas Vantassel 6-2, but Jacob Ianno, at 113, shut out Arith Gutierrez (Carthage) 11-0 in the first round before Pascarella topped him 9-2 in a quarterfinal clash of teammates. Zach Curcie lost his 145-pound quarterfinal to West Genesee’s Devin Earl 9-4 after an opening-round pin of Oswego’s Jasiah Rios. Brady Depan (285 pounds) took a 9-0 first-round defeat to Fulton’s Jared Crucitti.
